Just One of the Guys is an incredible movie that I personally feel sometimes unfairly gets overlooked because it was made in the '80s when so many other great movies came out. Heck, in just 1985 alone -- the year the movie was released -- you had movies come out like
Back To The Future, First Blood Part II, Teen Wolf, Commando, The Goonies and the list goes on-and-on. For me though,
Just One of the Guys is right up there with that list. I can watch it anytime. It's a charming movie that unfortunately I'm not so sure could be made in today's over-sensitive culture. Joyce Hyser's Terry was an androgynous rock star plus
Sherilyn Fenn and
William Zabka are a couple of all-time favorites of mine.
As it usually goes I was inspired to do this set after a recent re-watching. Since this movie, in my opinion, is so slept on I wanted to do something special as far as a custom card set goes. I tried to visualize how cards would look in all of the different 1985 sport card templates from all the major companies and nothing looked in my mind like a home run. Then, like the loser I am, I watched the movie again a couple of days later and the answer was right there in the dialogue:
Terry: "I'm a girl. I'm a woman."
Rick: "Right, and I'm Cyndi Lauper."
Eureka! In 1985 Topps put out a Cyndi Lauper trading card set! Perfect! I knew the pink paint splatter design would be a great throwback look for this set.
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| 1985 Topps Cyndi Lauper |
The Cyndi Lauper cards were not captioned on the front, they all just said "Cyndi Lauper" in that squiggly nameplate thingy. I thought to use that same design for a caption would be a real pain in the ass. So, what I did was I threw a
Just One of the Guys movie logo in the upper left corner. When I looked at that it felt like it needed something else. The logo doesn't really pop so I decided to add something to the lower right corner to kind of even the card out for the eye. I first thought of some sort of head shot cameo and started looking for the right image. That's where I came across the overseas VHS cover art and got an idea to edit the image to do the half-and-half Terry you see on the cards. I really think that's my favorite part of these cards.
Since I didn't have a caption on the front I decided to do something that has been requested but not done with my cards to this point ... each card has a unique back. I studied a lot up on the movie so I could have a unique quote and fun fact on the reverse of each card. I personally love that kind of nerd fanboy stuff. That cameo head shot idea I was going to use for the front got incorporated onto the back design. I'm not sure how often I'm going to make unique backings for future cards but, like I said, I wanted to do something a little special for this set.
This mini-set consists of a title card plus nine cards all with unique quotes and facts on the back... plus a bonus card, shaking out to eleven total cards.
I feel like I'd be neglectful if I didn't mention something about "the scene" in which Terry proves to Rick that she is indeed a she by revealing to him a couple of the most perfect breasts in cinematic history. For a guy like me that is probably closest maturity-wise to the ever horny younger brother Buddy, that scene is everything. As far as breasts scenes go I put it as 1b to Phoebe Cates' 1a in
Fast Times, it's that spectacular
. In researching the movie it seems Joyce Hyser is a little uneasy about the whole thing all these years later especially when it's found on the internet out of context to the movie's plot. I get that, and as respectfully as possible I would say to her she's got nothing to feel uneasy about. I found it interesting when I read that she's said no one has ever asked her at a signing or convention to sign that particular scene. I don't think I'd have the fortitude myself to try and get that signed but I'd probably be picturing it in my head while she signed one of my PG-13 cards. Sorry, Joyce.
